Anything cool I should be doing with an old business-surplus PC?

[NAS Newbie]

I had gotten this PC free from an uncle in IT several years ago with the intention of making it into a server before I discovered NAS solutions. I already have a high-end laptop for my engineering work, is there anything cool I should be doing with this one instead of selling it at a garage sale? You guys are about the most helpful and computer-literate forum that I'm a member of, so I figured I'd at least check here.

Computer specs:
Dell Vostro
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Intel i5 quad-core CPU. 750 @ 2.67Ghz
4Gb Ram
Nvidia GeForce 9500GT graphics card
Hard drive 1: 232 Gb
Hard drive 2: 1.81 TB

 

[Tedster]

See if you can grab a copy of WHS 2011.

 

[Rusty]

I had gotten this PC free from an uncle in IT several years ago with the intention of making it into a server before I discovered NAS solutions. I already have a high-end laptop for my engineering work, is there anything cool I should be doing with this one instead of selling it at a garage sale? You guys are about the most helpful and computer-literate forum that I'm a member of, so I figured I'd at least check here.

Computer specs:
Dell Vostro
Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
Intel i5 quad-core CPU. 750 @ 2.67Ghz
4Gb Ram
Nvidia GeForce 9500GT graphics card
Hard drive 1: 232 Gb
Hard drive 2: 1.81 TB

Well in the spirit of this forum, you could give a go at running DSM on it. Visit xpenology site for more detail. Maybe there is room for having one more nas in the house

 

[NAS Newbie]

See if you can grab a copy of WHS 2011.

Is there anything it can do that I can't do with my DS918+?

 

[NAS Newbie]

Well in the spirit of this forum, you could give a go at running DSM on it. Visit xpenology site for more detail. Maybe there is room for having one more nas in the house

How technical is doing something like that? Is it much different from all the stuff you've already helped me through? You guys are already stretching my networking knowledge far past its previous limits. If I tell my wife that she can't sell it and then it sits here for another year because I can't figure it out she won't be happy... ;-)

 

[NAS Newbie]

I should add, I can look at the xpenology site, but the PC is currently sitting outside with a for sale sticker on it and I think the wife is going to sell it to the lowest bidder unless I come up with a legit use for it. I'm not asking for a full breakdown on the xpenology solution, just a quick synopsis.

If I were to use this NAS/PC as a backup to some of my DS918+ files, and connected them only via LAN (NAS/PC wouldn't have access to WAN), can someone still hack into it through the DS918+, or will it be fairly secure?

 

[WST16]

Sell it. Save your sanity (and your marriage)

 

[fredbert]

See if you can spin up VirtualBox and get familiar with Linux command line in a safe environment. Doesn't matter if you do something disastrous cos you can just create a new VM.

Though for less than £50* you can do the same on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+. When it goes wrong you just re-image the card and start playing again.


* here that includes the Pi, power supply, case, microSD card, and UK value-added (sales) tax. Not sure what US prices are.

 

[Daddo]

Sell it. Save your sanity (and your marriage)

This.

Once upon a time my former company was downsizing and throwing away workstations, servers and various network devices.

Ended up with an attic full of “obsolete” hardware that eventually I either gave away or did some repairs for friends.

 

[itsjasper]

I would either:

Stick Linux on it
Run a hypervisor (e.g.: Vmware ESXI Free and have your NAS serve it storage over NFS or iSCSI)

 

[fredbert]

Ended up with an attic full of “obsolete” hardware that eventually I either gave away or did some repairs for friends.

Been there. It's odd that after being persuaded* to recycle a lot of the attic museum the pain has gone and I've forgotten we'd** even decided to do it ... so while it's their ghosts, the attic museum is still up there and just as much used!

* told
**excluding me

 

[WST16]

* told
**excluding me

The Force is female. A long time ago I realized
May the Force be with you @fredbert

 

[jeyare]

a funny story from 2009, when the last mainframe was switched off. we tried to move it to university free of charge, but we finally found an answer from them - who will pay for the electricity bills? An expensive heater for them